Jim Harper: Internal Enforcement, E-Verify, and the Road to a National ID

"Successful “internal enforcement” of immigration law requires having a national identity system. If expanded, “E-Verify,” the much-debated effort to control illegal immigration through access to employment, will become such a system, and it could easily be converted to controlling many dimensions of Americans’ lives from Washington, D.C. The neat congruence between expanded internal enforcement of immigration law and the national identification system necessary to implement it raises new questions about the advisability of worker background checks. A better approach than scouring the economy and society for people who illegally traversed the border might be substantive immigration policy reforms that are more consistent with liberty and prosperity for all." - Cato Journal, Winter 2012.